The IG Group's sales figure continues its quarterly decline as stricter rules are heard

IG Group's online trading platform declined in the third quarter by almost 30% year-over-year, highlighting the importance of the group's previous dependence on risky derivative contracts that have been subject to regulatory repression.

The three-month period ending in February was the full second quarter after the new strict European rules on so-called difference contracts, designed to protect inexperienced traders against potentially high losses.

IG said its revenue for the quarter had dropped to £ 108m, down 29% from the same period last year.

GI shares opened about 9 percent lower. Shares fell nearly 40% from the peak of August 2018.

Analysts expected the rules to affect revenues. In the previous quarter, the first since the introduction of the rules, revenues in the region affected by the regulatory crackdown had dropped 23%. Revenue in the region has declined by another 15 percent since then, IG said Thursday.

For the first nine months of the year, total revenues decreased by 15% and customer base decreased by 9%.

In addition to regulatory hurdles, the company said revenues were also limited by lower volatility, which made its business customers, who are unaffected by the rule changes, less likely to trade. It suffered from lower interest in cryptographic badets, which peaked in December 2017, the beginning of the previous third quarter of IG.

IG reiterated that revenues for the entire year should be lower than last year. But it was said that it was difficult to forecast revenue for the last quarter due to market volatility, although the company has committed to retain its dividend.